Ch. 411..420

Chapter 411

"Oh, yeah," Gravis muttered to himself as he remembered something. "That one Lord that I have killed before invading the Sand Tribe said that she was from the Stone Tribe. If I recall correctly, the Leader of that Tribe should be a level four Lord."

"Oi, Liza," Gravis transmitted to Liza, who was over a hundred kilometers away. Gravis' Spirit didn't reach that far, but thanks to his Lightning Fork, he could talk to her anyway. "A level two Lord is standing above our Spire. You want that?" Gravis asked.

Liza was a bit surprised. "Already? That was fast," she said and then hummed a bit. "I would rather see your power than eat them myself," she said.

Gravis chuckled a bit. "You don't believe that I can make myself more powerful, eh?" he asked.

Liza only smiled a bit. "I assume that you didn't lie, but that's quite a bold claim anyway. So, yes, I would rather see it," she said.

Gravis chuckled a bit. "Alright, sure. Just stay at the sidelines and watch. It's time I showed the Tribe my technique anyway."

Meanwhile, Gravis flew out of the Spire until he stood before the giant shark. The giant shark was quite surprised by Gravis. He had never seen a beast looking even remotely like him. On top of that, this beast felt incredibly weak. This was, by far, the weakest body of a Lord the shark had ever seen.

"Hey, I'm Gravis, the Leader of this Tribe. I was also the one that killed your officer. So, I think it's me you're looking for," Gravis said with a smirk.

The shark only scoffed in disdain.

Whoooosh!

A powerful, concentrated beam of water shot at Gravis with incredible speed. Gravis was flying, which meant that he had already moved all his power into his Spirit. As soon as the beast showed an inkling of attacking, Gravis activated his Will-Aura and shot to the side.

The beam slowed down due to Gravis' Will-Aura, and Gravis was quickly pushed to the side by his Spirit. Humans could fly faster than beasts since they didn't have to move such a ridiculous amount of weight with their flying technique. Therefore, it wasn't hard for Gravis to evade such an attack.

SHIIIING!

A hole was created that penetrated the whole Spire. The water beam had been quite powerful. Probably no one but Liza could evade such an attack. On top of that, this attack had only been a casual one.

The shark was shocked. Not only did this weak beast successfully evade his attack, but it also exuded some kind of pressure that made the shark move slower. The shark estimated that it could only use around 80% of his speed now.

"Oh, you want to get right to the action, eh?" Gravis asked with a smirk. "Sure, I can come to terms with that. But first, why did it take you so long to get here? I killed your officer like nearly two and a half weeks ago."

The shark regained his calm and looked at Gravis with interest now. "Our Tribe isn't close. It takes me about a week of travel to get here, quite a waste of time, in my opinion. That's also why I don't want to hear any bullshit from you. Is this pressure the reason why you can keep so many Lords under your rule?" he asked.

Gravis scratched his chin in thought. "Not entirely. It's just one of my weapons," Gravis said and then smiled at the shark, "but thank you for giving us a timeframe for when your colleagues arrive."

The shark only looked at Gravis with boredom. "Are you insinuating that you are able to kill me? Don't joke around like that. The only Lords that can jump an entire level are Divine Beasts, and you're not one of them."

"Divine Beasts? What's that?" Gravis asked. He hadn't heard about this concept yet.

The shark only huffed arrogantly. "Stop wasting time. No one will save you," the shark said and then readied himself to charge at Gravis. "Just accept your death."

BANG!

A powerful explosion could be heard as the shark shot at Gravis. This was not a casual attack anymore. As soon as Gravis would evade, the shark could change his trajectory and follow after him. With his faster speed, he would only need to chase Gravis to kill him.

Gravis saw that and sighed. 'Man, I really can't temper myself like this. Even if my Lightning Fork weakens me, I still don't feel any pressure. That's probably because my life isn't actually in danger and that I can deactivate my Lightning Fork whenever I want. Well, time to give the Tribe a show.'

Gravis flew upwards, and the shark followed after him. In less than a second, the shark would be able to swallow Gravis, even if he flew at his full speed.

WHOOOOM! WHOOOM!

Two other pressures appeared and pressed into the shark, shocking the shark to no end. They felt identical to the first one and were just as intense. Yet, they appeared from each of his sides. Shouldn't they come from his opponent?

The shark quickly noticed where these two pressures came from and stopped in shock. What did he just see?

Gravis was in front of him, but there was also another Gravis to his right. On top of that, a third one was to his left. They all looked and felt identical. What the fuck was going on?

The watchers looked with shock at the sky. Why were there three of their Leader? Where did these other two come from? Shira only looked at the Gravises with narrowed eyes. 'I knew that something was up,' she thought.

Silva was impressed by what he was seeing, while Morn showed an incredible interest in what was happening. Even with his incredible amount of experience, he had no idea what was happening. Orthar only watched calmly.

Meanwhile, Liza finally understood what Gravis meant when he had said that his power was only a third of his peak. She also grew a bit bitter as she realized that she had been helplessly suppressed by only one of these Gravises.

"Thank you for visiting," all three Gravises said at the same time. "We're the rulers of this land, the Gravis Force!" they shouted as they all lifted one finger in the air in a heroic pose.

The reactions from the Tribe were mixed as they heard Gravis. A few of them felt like this was embarrassing, but most of them were impressed by Gravis' heroic speech. This was their Leader, and their Leader had just declared his dominance!

"Anyway, it's time for you to scatter," the Gravis above the shark said. Then, he started falling as he concentrated half his power into his Punishment Lightning. Meanwhile, the other two Gravises kept the Will-Aura active to slow the shark down.

BZZZZZZ!

A powerful lightning bomb was created on Gravis' hand. With his additional control, he could choose how much lightning and Spirit went into the Lightning Bomb. This time, he decided to fill it with nearly

everything he had.

The shark roared in anger and shot at Gravis. He couldn't believe that something as ridiculous as this was happening. There had to be a trick to it, and he wouldn't believe that a level one Lord could be a danger to his life. If he used all his force to attack, Gravis would surely collapse.

Whooom!

The Lightning Bomb was thrown into the shark's mouth and then exploded violently.

BOOOOOOM!

A two-kilometer-wide explosion took place. Luckily, they fought high in the sky. Like this, the explosion wouldn't damage their territory or kill members of their Tribe. The explosion was incredibly bright and blinded most of the onlookers, and the shockwaves hit the lands and shook them with their power.

The shark exploded into many pieces. Gravis only smirked with a laugh. "As I said, it's time for you to scatter, get it?" he said. His Lightning Bomb had weakened to only 10% of his power by the time the shark died, but as soon as the shark had died, no will was keeping its Energy condensed anymore.

Therefore, the explosion quickly transformed into some lightning bolts that shot at the scattered parts of the shark. The lightning bolts quickly burned the parts into dust, making the lightning even more powerful. In less than a second, the whole body of the shark had vanished.

The lightning had grown many times more powerful after absorbing everything. Then, it simply shot at Gravis and was absorbed. Gravis took a deep breath as he felt power course through his body.

Then, Gravis clenched his right fist and looked at it with a smirk. "Eating will be way less bothersome like this," Gravis commented.

When a beast ate another beast, they would absorb all the Energy and power inside their body. What Gravis had done just now was no different. His lightning simply absorbed everything and returned to his body, where it distributed the harvested power.

After seeing how easily their Leader had dealt with a level two Lord, nearly every beast was shocked into submission. This was the most incredible power they had ever seen! On top of that, they all were part of this mighty beast's Tribe. Nearly all beasts were incredibly proud of being in the River Tribe. Even Orthar was surprised by Gravis' power. Hearing and seeing were two entirely different concepts.

Yet, one question was upon every beast's mind.

How were there three Gravises?

This was Gravis' Lightning Fork. After seeing that even his foundation was liquidized when he transformed into lightning, Gravis immediately thought about his clone that he had met in the Heaven's Trial.

Why not do exactly that, but different?

Why not just make three bodies with a third of his power?

Gravis tested it out and noticed that it worked without a problem. There was one Gravis but three bodies, Spirits, and lightning. These bodies were not autonomous entities but were more akin to limbs.

He had one awareness that controlled these three bodies like they were arms, only more complicated. When Gravis saw the result, he grew incredibly excited.

Why?

Because he had to waste a lot of time in the past because he only had one body. Gravis needed to increase his power, battle, control the Tribe, learn smithing, search for materials, and watch the CMO.

Nearly all these things required him to be in different places.

So, after Gravis activated his Lightning Fork for the first time, he sent one body to search for materials with the fungus. When that body found materials, it would directly forge with them to get more experience. On top of that, he was getting some nice stuff out of these materials.

Another body was simply keeping a check on everything. Every Unity Beast could reduce their size by a factor of ten. Gravis was already small with a height of "only" two meters, but as soon as he reduced his size even further, he would only be 20-centimeters-tall. Like this, he could walk all around his property without anyone noticing.

Nearly all powerful beasts were over 50-meters-tall. No one would notice a 20-centimeter-tall, tiny lizard-thing. On top of that, Gravis' weaker body became even weaker by 50% when he was that tiny. No one noticed him as he just traveled around his territory.

The third Gravis sat on standby inside his cave. Everyone else was confused about what he was doing there all the time, but Gravis knew. He was simply looking at the CMO with interest.

Everyone else only thought that Gravis was staying inside his cave all day, but that couldn't be further from the truth. With one body constantly roaming around and the other body digging through their whole territory, he traveled more than any other beast.

To stop the Lightning Fork, Gravis only needed to convert two of his bodies into lightning and shoot them into the third one. Then, all his power would be condensed into one body.

This was the power of the Lightning Fork!

 

Chapter 412

Gravis landed on top of the Spire. After that, his two other bodies transformed into lightning and got absorbed by him. The beasts were shocked when they saw that since this seemed way too magical. After that, he simply told Orthar that he should explain it to the Tribe. After all, Gravis needed to regenerate his wasted Spirit and Lightning and then go back to smithing and watching the CMO.

The upper echelon immediately wanted to ask Gravis about his technique, but he just directed them to Orthar. After a lot of explaining, Orthar managed to rudimentarily describe the technique that Gravis was using. When they heard that Gravis could actually transform into lighting, they were, again, surprised to no end.

How would something like this even be possible? On top of that, a lot of beasts didn't even know Gravis' affinity. After all, he had only used it against the original Leader of the Sand Tribe and then against Liza. His body just didn't seem to fit his attribute. He looked more like a darkness or fire beast.

Orthar just laughed at that and told them that Gravis had started as an electric eel. A lot of surprises came today, and this was one of them. Gravis didn't resemble an eel even remotely. Yet, this fact gave the upper echelon a lot of motivation. If Gravis managed to create such an intimidating body as an eel, why couldn't they?

After half an hour, peace came back to the River Tribe, but that was only relative. A lot of Lords that wanted to take a break went out to hunt again. Gravis' power inspired them and hearing that he had been an eel only solidified their resolve.

A lot of Lords left the Tribe again to fight more Tribes. Meanwhile, the Sea Camp continued fighting crazily against itself under Shira's orders. Silva finally managed to talk to Morn and found a couple of Tribes with two Lords. He chose the easiest one since fighting two Lords at once was incredibly difficult. On top of that, if there were two Lords, one of them had to be powerful.

Some days passed, and the Land Camp was insanely growing with the huge influx of scattered beasts joining them. Liza was busy all day, and there already was quite a significant backlog for new recruits. By now, the Land Camp had over 1000 beasts, but many more recruits were waiting to join the Camps.

Meanwhile, the Sea Camp only had about 100 due to their insane fighting. Yet, they had also produced several Lords, who also immediately went out to fight Tribes. In just five more days, the Tribe expanded rapidly into the continent until they finally found a Tribe that had a level two Lord as a Leader.

The Tribe was over 15.000 kilometers away, quite a far distance. Yet, one shouldn't forget that the middle world was huge. 15.000 kilometers was a long distance if one considered the size of a lower world. However, here, it was only a distance that separated Initial-Rank Unity Beasts from Early-Rank Unity Beasts. How far until they reached the territories of level three Lords?

Orthar asked Liza if she was interested in that Tribe. Yet, Liza declined. Liza wanted to become more powerful, but she didn't want to risk her life until her revenge had been complete.

There was a significant difference between fighting a level one Lord with their Tribe and fighting a level two Lord with their Tribe. A level one Lord only had Spirit Beasts under them, and the gap between Spirit Beasts and Lords was double as wide as the gap between Lords.

It could be compared to a High-Rank Spirit Beast fighting another High-Rank Spirit Beast with lots of Low-Rank Spirit Beasts helping the second one. Yet, with a level two Lord, it would be like all the Low- Rank Spirit Beasts were replaced by Mid-Rank Spirit Beasts. This was a massive difference.

With a two-Rank-difference, the weaker beasts would find it very difficult to injure the combatant. At most, they could slow them down and distract them. Yet, when there was only one Rank of distance, these beasts would be able to lightly injure the combatant. This made the whole fight harder.

Gravis considered moving the headquarters inwards, but he decided against it for the time being. Normally, he would quickly move it to give the Lords easier access to powerful Tribes, but he didn't do it

this time.

What was the reason?

The reason was the Stone Tribe's eventual retaliation. If they moved inwards, the Stone Tribe wouldn't be able to find Gravis easily, and he didn't want that. As soon as they realized that their envoy wasn't returning, they would probably send a Mid-Rank Unity Beast, also called a level three Lord. A level three Lord would pose a genuine danger to Gravis, and that's precisely what he wanted.

Another couple of days later, some significant changes took place inside the River Tribe. Silva had managed to return by going through hell. He had barely won against the Tribe with two Lords, and he had eaten both of them. Now, he still had three fights left, and he was going to use one of them on Shira. It was time for her to die!

Yet, Silva grew angry and frustrated when he returned. The Land Camp was tired of being suppressed by Shira, and three Lords had decided to use up her chances of fighting. Shira killed them but was forced to become the second level two Lord of the River Tribe.

Like this, the Land Camp could kill the Sea Camp all they wanted again, but they had sacrificed three of their Lords. On top of that, Silva couldn't challenge Shira anymore since she was a level higher than him now.

When Silva heard that, he grew angry at his Camp and berated them. He wasn't angry at them because of Shira's new power but because they had thrown their lives away. These meaningless deaths infuriated him.

Yet, after seeing that he couldn't fight Shira anymore, Silva decided to use up his three last fights to kill the three most powerful Lords in the Sea Camp. With that, the numbers of Lords would be equal again for both Camps. Luckily, the Land Camp had an experience and power advantage since their Lords had already killed several Tribes solo.

After these three fights, Silva also became a level two Lord. Yet, he wasn't happy about that. As long as Shira was still alive, he could never be happy. She needed to die! Only then would peace come to the Tribe.

Silva estimated that his combat power was slightly stronger than Shira, but he wasn't that selfless that he would throw his life away to take her down with him. After all, they both had potent venom. He needed to become powerful enough to take her down without dying himself. Because of that, Silva immediately left the Tribe again to fight against a level two Tribe by himself. He needed more power!

Shira had noticed Silva's absence. As soon as she noticed that, she grew nervous, angry, and frustrated again. She didn't want to pressure herself more. She only wanted to take a break for now.

Yet, she couldn't fall behind Silva. If she did, she would die. Because of that, Shira was forced to also fight a level two Tribe alone. Such a fight could mean her death, but it was better than a guaranteed death at Silva's hands. She couldn't bet on the fact that Silva would die in that fight.

Meanwhile, Gravis only smirked. "See? That's why I gave Shira her position," Gravis said smugly to Orthar.

Orthar could only agree. "I wouldn't have expected that such a rivalry and pressure would make the Tribe this powerful in such a short amount of time. Without Shira, the Tribe wouldn't even be close to being so powerful. Who knew that having an enemy inside your organization would make the organization this powerful?"

Some more days passed, and the Land Camp was suppressing the Sea Camp again. After all, they had the power and experience advantage.

Yet, being the most powerful also came with disadvantages. The Stone Tribe was an excellent example. If they weren't so powerful, Gravis would just ignore them and move his Tribe further into the continent. But since they were so powerful, Gravis grew interested and wanted to kill more of them.

This phenomenon also happened to the Land Tribe now. They had mighty Lords, and they would serve as some excellent tempering. Now, they were ripe for the picking. One shouldn't forget that it wasn't only the Land Camp and Sea Camp that required tempering.

It was time for Orthar and Morn to temper themselves. For this, they only chose the most powerful beasts in the Tribe that didn't take up key positions. And, sadly, right now, the most powerful Lords were all from the Land Camp.

On this day, the apocalypse arrived for the Land Camp. Orthar and Morn fought one powerful beast after the other. Of course, all of this didn't only take place in one day. After all, these fights were brutal, and these two required some rest between fights. If these fights weren't so dangerous, they wouldn't fight.

After some more days, Silva and Shira returned to the Tribe. Yet, they almost couldn't believe that all the most powerful Lords in the Land Camp were dead. The Land Camp now had fewer Lords than the Sea Camp, and the individual Battle-Strength of both camps was also comparable.

When Silva and Shira heard that Morn and Orthar were at fault for that, they grew incredibly frustrated but for different reasons. Silva wasn't frustrated with Orthar or Morn but with himself. He should have known that something like this would happen! He had completely forgotten that Morn and Orthar also required tempering.

At the same time, Shira grew frustrated because of what this meant. This meant that suppressing the Land Camp by having her Sea Camp be more powerful became useless!

On the next day, Shira and Silva met for the first time to negotiate. Seeing that overpowering the other Camp wouldn't solve the issue, they decided to keep out of the fights between the Camps. Like this, the Camps would remain equal. They decided that their fight was only between the two of them.

One shouldn't forget that this wouldn't be the last time for Orthar and Morn to become active. Shira and Silva both knew that the same thing would repeat when they had many level two Lords. Because of this, suppression by Camp became absolutely meaningless in their power struggle.

This situation also reminded them of another terrifying thought.

When they became level three Lords, something even more terrifying might happen.

At that point, they might even become interesting to Gravis.

 

Chapter 413

The next couple of days were peaceful. With Shira and Silva no longer scheming against each other, the Camps had a way easier time. Neither of the two decided to suppress the other Camp anymore. After all, the power of their Camps was meaningless in the struggles. Orthar and Morn would just kill all the more powerful beasts.

But now, the Tribe already had five level two Lords, Shira, Silva, Morn, Orthar, and Liza. Such a Tribe could already be counted as the strongest inside the area where level two Tribes congregated. Yet, the Tribe had only just reached that area.

Orthar and Morn had also killed a level two Tribe solo, but it had proven to be incredibly difficult. Both had been injured severely, which showed that they were no longer stronger than Shira and Silva. By now, all four of them were at about the same power.

They wanted to continue tempering themselves, but Gravis stopped them. Because…

"Who killed my son!?" an angry shout thundered through the whole River Tribe. A two-kilometer-long shark flew above the Spire. When Gravis felt his power, he grew excited but also nervous.

Normally, he would only be excited by such a powerful opponent, but what made him nervous was that the opponent hadn't come alone. Beside him stood a massive crab, which was even slightly bigger than the shark. This crab was also a level three Lord.

Gravis hadn't expected that the Stone Tribe would send two level three Lords. Didn't they need to hold their own territories too? Surely, they didn't have an overabundance of level three Lords. So, why had they sent two?

The reason for that was that the Stone Tribe had lost twice. Losing a level one Lord was no issue. Losing a level two Lord hurt them a bit because level two Lords took up positions as powerful commanders and officers.

What if they lost a level three Lord? The whole Tribe only had three of those, and losing one would prove devastating. Because of that, they had decided to make a show of strength to deter their enemies. After that, they sent two of the three level three Lords to finally end this matter.

Gravis narrowed his eyes. 'Fighting one level three Lord is already very dangerous to me. Fighting two of them is certain death. I need my Will-Aura to deal with one of them. If I split it amongst two, it won't be as effective, and if I focus it only on one, the other one will be too fast for me to react.'

'Additionally, I can't even flee. I am faster than a level two Lord in my Lightning Form, but not as fast as a level three Lord. They could catch me and use up all my lightning. This would also be certain death.'

Gravis narrowed his eyes further as he felt the sensation of pressure return. He hadn't felt this much pressure since standing in front of that powerful Priest from the Heaven Sect. His mind went wild as it started thinking about every eventuality.

'There's only one way left,' Gravis thought with determination.

BZZ! BZZ!

Two lightning bolts entered Gravis' body as he deactivated the Lightning Fork. He needed his full power to deal with one of them. "Silva, Shira, Morn, Orthar, you need to kill the crab together. Alone, you will only die helplessly, but together, you have a chance," Gravis transmitted to them.

The four remained silent for a while. Jumping a whole level was incredibly difficult. One had to know that one level meant that the body of the opponent was four times as powerful as theirs. Theoretically, by adding the power of their four bodies together, they would have the same power.

Yet, power didn't work that way. A body with quadruple the power would have quadruple the attack, quadruple the defense and quadruple the speed. Such a powerful beast would be able to kill one of

them in a heartbeat. Without incredible combat experience, they wouldn't even be able to evade or survive a single attack.

"I am ready," Orthar transmitted to everyone. "When I decided to follow Gravis, I knew that a time like this would come. It's make or break!" Orthar's voice sounded wild and powerful. He knew that this would be his most dangerous fight ever.

"I have accepted the philosophy of the River Tribe," Morn said. "If my death comes today, then so be it!" Morn sounded just as aggressive as Orthar.

"I am ready to protect the Tribe!" Silva shouted. "This Tribe is my home, and the members are my comrades. We have a chance of survival, and I am ready to bet on that chance!"

"I won't sacrifice my life for others!" Shira said slyly. "I'm not fighting."

All four of them concentrated their presences on her. The fact that she declined angered them.

"It's her decision," Gravis said evenly. "Risks come with rewards, and if she isn't ready to take this risk, she won't get the rewards. Fighting something way more powerful is different than fighting many things with equal power. You still have a shot if only the three of you fight. It will just be many times harder."

"I only see death," Shira answered slyly. "I can't harvest any rewards if I'm dead. So, sorry, but I decline."

The other three grew more nervous, but they decided to try it. This was a chance to become way more powerful. They might die, but they were ready for it. As soon as they joined the River Tribe, they decided that they never wanted to be mediocre again. It was time to decide who was outstanding and who was mediocre!

With this, everyone came out of the Spire. In just a second, all four of them had gathered in front of the two visitors. "I thought beasts didn't care about the survival of their children?" Gravis asked.

The two visitors looked at the four of them and quickly realized why the envoy had died. This Tribe was unreasonably powerful in relation to the area they occupied. Yet, who was able to keep so many level two Lords in check? Was there a level three Lord in the Tribe?

"Where is your Leader?" the crab asked.

Gravis smirked with narrowed eyes. "I'm right here," he said.

"You?" the crab asked with disdain. The body of this beast felt as weak as the body of an Energy Beast. How could someone with such a weak body possibly lead three level two Lords?

Of course, since Gravis was flying, all his power had been concentrated into his Spirit. This was the reason why his body was so weak right now.

"Yes, and we will fight to the end," Gravis said with narrowed eyes. "My three companions will deal with you," Gravis said as he looked at the crab. "While I will deal with you," he said as he looked at the shark.

The two were surprised by the fighting spirit of the beasts. An incredibly weak beast would fight one alone while the other three fought the other one? Were they suicidal?

"Interesting," the shark said with burning eyes. "And to answer your earlier question, you're right. I don't care about the death of my son." The shark's eyes narrowed, "but I care about the death of one of my tribesmen."

Gravis laughed a bit. "Good, then let's get to it, shall we?" he said and then shot into the sky.

The shark sneered and followed Gravis leisurely. Meanwhile, the crab looked at the three others. "Where do you want to fight?" it asked.

"Follow me," Orthar said and then shot into another direction. The other two followed him. The crab didn't mind this and thought that this was quite an entertaining game. Because of that, it also just followed.

After a minute, the two enemies were over 150 kilometers away from each other. Level three Lords had a sense that covered the surrounding 40 kilometers. Like this, the two Lords wouldn't be able to watch the other fight.

Gravis had told his three companions to do this. After all, if their enemy realized that Gravis was way more powerful than they had assumed, he might drop everything and help his colleague. The three beasts from the River Tribe could fight him but not stop him from fleeing.

Gravis also flew for a while until he was high in the sky. As soon as Gravis stopped, the shark accelerated.

The shark had already taken the initiative!

Chapter 414

And like this, the fight immediately began. There was no talking or posturing. It was just a direct battle to the death.

The shark shot directly at Gravis. He wasn't taking Gravis seriously, but he still remained a bit careful. After all, his son had died inside this Tribe, and something had to be powerful enough to kill him. Maybe it was one of those other level two Lords, but it could have also been Gravis. After all, Gravis was the Leader of this Tribe.

Gravis started falling as he pushed all of his power into his body. Now, his body was about three times as powerful as an average level one Lord. The shark was surprised when he felt the difference. Earlier, Gravis had the weakest body of any level one Lord, but now, he had the most powerful body of any level one Lord.

The shark rose from below as Gravis fell from above. Just as the distance was just fifty meters, Gravis immediately transformed into lightning and shot at the shark with over double his speed. The shark was shocked by the sudden speed.

In no time at all, Gravis arrived at his teeth.

BANG!

With an absolutely unreal speed, the shark closed his mouth. Gravis hadn't expected his mouth to be so fast, and the teeth destroyed part of his lightning since he wasn't fast enough to retreat fully. Gravis immediately transformed back, but 10% of all his power had been lost due to that sudden attack.

BANG!

The bite had been stopped, but the shark was still charging. The closed teeth hit Gravis' body, and he was thrown into the distance. The bite was the shark's most powerful attack, but his charge was also

impressive. His full weight, fueled by his incredible speed, hit Gravis like a hammer.

Gravis got shot into the distance, and the shark followed up. Three concentrated beams of water appeared and shot at Gravis.

BZZZZ!

Gravis transformed into lightning again and split apart to evade the beams. Then, the lightning congregated again and recreated his body. Gravis had already lost 10% of his total power, but, luckily, his scales were powerful enough to withstand the shark's charge. Like this, it wouldn't be a waste to change into lightning again.

An injury to the body also counted as wasting power. If Gravis transformed into lightning while being injured, he would be able to recreate a fully healed but weaker body. Additionally, Gravis couldn't afford to get injured in a fight.

Why?

Because his whole body was made up of lightning. This meant that he didn't have any inherent Energy inside his body anymore, which meant that he couldn't create Life Lightning anymore.

Now, when Gravis was injured, he had no way to immediately heal himself effectively again. Transforming his body into pure lightning destroyed any possibility of creating Life Lightning again.

This was also the reason why Gravis was so adamant about watching the CMO all the time. If he managed to learn Laws about life, he might find a way to heal himself again. Yet, luckily, his scales had been powerful enough so that he hadn't gotten injured by the shark's charge.

One shouldn't forget that these scales were incredibly powerful. If Gravis used all of his power on his body, the scales would be about as hard as some average scales of a level three Lord. They managed

to protect him from the charge, but the water beams would have injured him.

Gravis looked at his opponent with burning eyes. 'Yes! This is what I longed for, the feeling of losing my life at any moment! The fight is already difficult with my full power, but my Realm has now decreased by 10%. I feel anxiety and fear for my life, but that is exactly what I want! I love this feeling!' Gravis thought crazily.

Gravis immediately transformed into lightning again and split himself in two. Then, he started controlling the lightning bolts separately to move around the shark.

WHOOOM!

A mighty tail-swipe nearly hit one of the bolts, but Gravis split that bolt in two again to evade. The shark immediately summoned two additional water beams that shot at the lightning bolts.

BZZ! BZZ!

But they split again. Yet, controlling all these individual lightning bolts was incredibly stressful for Gravis' concentration. He couldn't keep this up for long, but he had no other choice. Then, the individual lightning bolts gathered again until there were two left.

BZZ! SHING!

The other lightning bolt transformed into a Gravis. The shark hadn't paid much attention to the second lightning bolt, which had been a big mistake. Gravis' body appeared directly at one of the shark's eyes. On top of that, this Gravis wasn't barehanded.

He carried a powerful, big, black saber in his claws. It was nearly two meters long and wide like a meat cleaver. Sabers were basically huge knives, and this specimen showed the resemblance even better. This was one of Gravis' newly-forged weapons.

The saber stabbed into the eye but didn't manage to go far due to the power difference. Yet…

BOOOOOM!

"AAARRGGHHH!" the shark shouted in pain as a considerable part of his head exploded. Gravis had preloaded a Lightning Crescent into the saber. The humongous explosion destroyed a huge chunk of the shark's head and then returned to Gravis.

The Lightning Crescent wasn't able to absorb much Energy from the still-living shark, but it also wasn't fully used up. The gathered lightning from the Lightning Crescent and the other lightning bolt all gathered together again. Then, Gravis recreated his body.

Since he had put some of his Lightning into the saber, its Energy didn't count towards his normal Realm. After all, it was backup Energy that remained outside his body. By reabsorbing this Energy, Gravis' Realm increased again until he was at his old peak. Yet, he had used up one of his trump cards.

Gravis looked with narrowed eyes at the injured shark. 'His body is really hard. Even with such a point- blank explosion into his eye, he still managed to survive. On top of that, his Battle-Strength didn't get reduced.'

The shark grew angry and looked at Gravis in rage. "You! Die!" he shouted and shot at Gravis with his full speed. Additionally, over ten beams of water appeared around his body. As long as he kept them there, he could shoot them whenever he felt like it.

WHOOM! WHOOM! WHOOM!

The water beams shot at Gravis, and Gravis couldn't evade them like this, forcing him to finally activate his Will-Aura. He wanted to keep it for a surprise moment, but he had to use it early to survive now. The water bolts slowed down a bit, but they were still incredibly fast.

Thanks to his evasion training, Gravis managed to bend his upper body in such a way that he was barely evading the blasts. This was only made possible by Gravis' constant Dodge Ball training in the lower world.

Yet, the shark wasn't stupid. As soon as he noticed that Gravis could evade his beams, he fired all of them in a spread to keep him from evading. After all, he was already very close to Gravis. If Gravis decided to evade the shots, he would get eaten.

Gravis gnashed his teeth and transformed into lightning to evade the shots. Yet, the mouth came closer and chomped down on him with incredible force. The lightning currently inside the shark's mouth detached from the central lightning bolt and transformed into another Gravis, who took out a saber.

BANG!

This Gravis was immediately destroyed under the bite. Yet, due to this, Gravis lost 33% of his foundation. As long as one of his lightning bolts didn't have enough power to qualify for the Unity Realm, he wouldn't be able to condense it into a body. Yet, he needed a body if he wanted to access his Spirit Space.

BOOOOOM!

Teeth and blood shot out of the shark's mouth as it seemingly exploded. The earlier Lightning Crescent had only had half of Gravis' power. The other half of his power had been saved in a second saber.

Gravis had a lot of sabers by now, thanks to his smithing practice, but he noticed that he couldn't store more than 100% of his power in weapons. As soon as he did that, he would lose control over his stored power. Like this, Gravis had decided to save 50% of his power each inside his two sabers.

The shark's bite was mighty, and destroying such a weak body of Gravis was not an issue. Due to that, the bite also had enough force to completely break the saber. Yet, as soon as the saber broke, all its

saved power exploded out of the saber.

The explosion created a vast hole inside the shark's mouth, and he lost around 20% of his teeth. Yet, such an attack wasn't enough to kill him. The shark quickly regained his control and noticed that the biggest lightning bolt was charging into his mouth. When he saw that, he immediately bit down with all his force.

BOOOOM!

More teeth broke away from the shark's mouth as his powerful bite was now condensed onto a smaller area of teeth. Yet, even with such a reckless bite, he hadn't been able to hit Gravis. In all his panic and rage, the shark forgot that he had lost a lot of teeth. Obviously, Gravis charged right through one of these gaps.

As Gravis entered the shark's mouth, the remaining lightning from the second Lightning Crescent returned into him, bringing him up to 80% of his foundation. Then, Gravis condensed his body again and moved all of his power into his Spirit and Lightning.

BZZZZZ!

A powerful Lightning Bomb was created as Gravis used 90% of his power to create it. Then, he resummoned his first saber and moved it through the Lightning Bomb to absorb it. After that, he shot towards the ceiling of the shark's mouth.

SHING!

The saber stabbed into the soft flesh until only its hilt could be seen. Then, the Lightning Crescent was released from its tip, right towards the shark's brain.

BOOOOOOM!

A gigantic explosion appeared as Gravis' mad grin got illuminated by the white lightning. From the outside, it looked like the head of the shark was swelling to nearly twice its size. His remaining eye was pushed out of its socket as it hung loosely from the inflated head. Then, the shark stopped moving and started falling to the ground.

BOOOOOM!

Another explosion of lightning appeared as the will of the shark left this world, and with that, The lightning had full reign over the body now, as it completely absorbed it. In only ten seconds, all traces of the shark were gone from this world. Digesting such a powerful prey took longer than digesting a level two Lord. Yet, that difference only meant a couple more seconds with Gravis' peculiar method of eating.

After that, all the lightning gathered together into a new Gravis. "Finally!" he shouted with all his power, making the earth tremble. "Finally, I can temper my will again!" he shouted.

The fight couldn't be counted as one of his most difficult fights, but it was undoubtedly an actual danger to his life. He had used up all his saved-up power and nearly all of his own power as well. If that attack hadn't killed the shark, he would only die helplessly.

As soon as Gravis recondensed his body, he noticed multiple things. First of all, his Realm hadn't increased, which didn't conform to his earlier calculations. Normal beasts required eight beasts of their level to become more powerful, and Gravis needed double of that due to his scales.

Yet, every level also increased the power by four times. So, Gravis needed 16 beasts on his level. Yet, a level three Lord was 16 times more powerful than a level one Lord. Like this, Gravis should have been able to level up with this corpse. On top of that, Gravis had also eaten a level two Lord previously, which would put his level one Lord power-count to 20.

Yet, Gravis hadn't leveled up. In the beginning, he was confused, but as soon as he noticed another thing, his question was answered.

"My lightning has increased tremendously," he said as he scratched his chin in thought.

 

Chapter 415

Gravis knew how his body, lightning, and Spirit worked the best. Therefore, he could also deduce what had happened. The growth process of his Spirit and body went through something that Gravis called hard breakthroughs, while his lightning grew via soft breakthroughs.

He had come up with these terms after learning smithing with his father and remembering how he had grown in the lower world. When his Spirit and body received some tempering, their power didn't increase immediately. It always required them to amass enough resources to break through into the next level in one motion. This was what Gravis dubbed as a hard breakthrough.

Meanwhile, ever since Gravis got his lightning, it never went through these kinds of hard breakthroughs. It just grew autonomously. There were no boundaries, borders, or direct Realms that he could assign to his lightning. It simply became more powerful. This was what Gravis dubbed as a soft breakthrough.

Gravis estimated that his lightning's power had gone from 100% to about 230%. 400% would be the boundary for the Early Unity Realm. Yet, how had a beast two entire levels above him only given him so little? The reason for that was that two-thirds of the power went into his body and Spirit. Yet, since these two went through hard breakthroughs, he hadn't noticed that before.

Gravis had also started calculating in something that he called Power Units. One Power Unit was equivalent to a corpse in the same Realm and level as the combatant. Normal beasts required eight Power Units to breakthrough, which was equivalent to eating eight beasts at the same level as them. Of course, Power Units would always adapt to the Realm of the beast.

Gravis' body required double of that, which meant that he needed 16 Power Units for his body. Yet, that had only been true up until he had achieved Unity. After all, his Spirit and lightning already had had the power of Unity, which didn't require them to grow more powerful.

But now, all of this had changed. Now, it wasn't only his body that required resources to grow. Now, his Spirit and lightning also needed to grow. Gravis estimated that his lightning was special and that it also required 16 Power Units. This bumped up the total to already 32 Power Units, quadruple of what an ordinary beast needed.

His Spirit, on the other hand, just became more powerful by feeding off of his lightning. Therefore, it shouldn't require more than a normal beast. With these clues, Gravis guessed that his Spirit only needed eight Power Units. This would bump up his total to 40.

Gravis had guessed these things by thinking about what he had been eating in relation to what he had gained. He had eaten a level two Lord and a level three Lord, which would equate to 20 Power Units. This should cover half of his level-up-cost.

Yet, his lightning had only grown by 130% instead of the estimated 150%, but Gravis knew how that had happened. When he had been fighting the shark, his Realm had decreased by liquifying his foundation when he transformed into lightning. Yet, he was back at his old peak now with more powerful lightning.

This meant that part of the absorbed power went into restoring his foundation immediately. Therefore, his Realm was only a third of its way to the next level instead of half. That was also how Gravis deduced that his Spirit didn't require as many resources as his body and lightning. If it did, his lightning wouldn't have grown by so much.

"So, I need about three beasts, two levels higher than me, to achieve a breakthrough. Sixteen times three is 48. Yet, since my foundation may require repair, some of my food will go to waste. That's a lot of food, but I'm actually quite happy with that. I don't like wasting resources, and if it takes that much for me to become more powerful, I get more opportunities to temper myself," Gravis muttered as he looked at his right hand.

Then, Gravis sighed. "I think I can count myself lucky, for once. If I needed to meditate and filter the Energy in the air into my lightning, a breakthrough would take forever. Like this, I, at least, can always walk forward."

Gravis looked at the world around him as he floated in the sky. "So, not only are beasts more straightforward, but my cultivation in this world is also more straightforward. I only need to eat to raise my Realm."

But then, Gravis smirked. "But of course, it isn't as easy as it appears to be. After all, this doesn't take Laws into account. I still need to understand some of them to raise my Battle-Strength. Additionally, they probably become a requirement for my Realm later on."

Gravis quickly shook his head. 'I should check up on the others,' he thought.

BZZZZ! BANG!

Gravis transformed into lightning and shot into the distance with a mighty thunder. He was a bit faster than before, thanks to his more powerful lightning.

After traveling for around half a minute, Gravis split into three again. Then, two of them retreated while the third Gravis stayed and shrunk to a height of 20 centimeters.

Why was he doing that?

Because the fight was still going on.

If any of the combatants noticed that Gravis had already won, things might change. The crab might start fleeing at that point, and Gravis didn't want that. He wanted to keep that crab here, even if it meant killing all his companions. They deserved this supreme tempering opportunity.

Gravis watched the fight with narrowed eyes. Right now, his companions were all being torn apart one by one. On top of that, Orthar was completely missing. Yet, Gravis didn't jump to conclusions immediately.

Morn had incredibly vast crevices running through his body. One could see that these were the spots where the crab managed to grab him, judging by their form. Morn probably decided that it was better to sacrifice a huge chunk of his body than to remain inside the crab's grip.

Silva had a deformed head, and one of his arms was missing. On top of that, one of his fangs had broken off. The fight looked incredibly bitter. Yet, the crab also had some injuries, but they were minor in comparison.

The crab had some cracked parts on its carapace, but nothing too big. Yet, one of its eyes had utterly vanished. Silva had probably managed to bite the eye, which forced the crab to get rid of it entirely. Otherwise, the venom would tear through its entire body.

Silva's chipped fang probably came from a time when he had tried to bite the carapace, or a part that he had assumed was softer. Morn was probably tanking most of the incoming damage with his huge body. His body might not be more powerful than the others' bodies, but he had more body to waste than them.

The crab was swinging at Morn crazily. It was almost like it was pressed for time. Morn barely dodged most attacks but got still hit occasionally. When that happened, another huge part of his body would get torn off.

The terrain as far as the eye could see was completely destroyed. Vast holes and craters had appeared as many weaker beasts and Spirit Plants died. Their fight had also spanned over a massive territory since they didn't just stand still. It was almost like the apocalypse had arrived.

Gravis looked at their eyes and noticed that they still held glimmers of hope and fighting intent. Apparently, they thought that they could win now. Gravis looked at the crab and noticed something interesting.

The hole where the eye had been had some black flesh coming out of it. Yet, this was not rotten or dead flesh but something entirely different. Gravis narrowed his eyes and scratched his chin in thought.

'Interesting,' he thought as he watched. 'This almost looks and feels like some kind of metal. Yet, this isn't something that has been created by smelting some material. The flesh of the crab itself seems to have transformed into metal. Huh, apparently, metal is also an element.'

Gravis was right. Cultivators and beasts with the metal affinity could transform parts of their bodies into powerful metal. Such a body part was way harder and more powerful. This increased their attack and defense substantially.

Yet, it also cost a lot of Energy to keep the transformation going. Metal beasts had an edge in attack and defense but had a weakness in sustainability. That was also the reason why the crab seemed so pressed for time.

Gravis had also guessed why that eye-hole was always in a state of metal. The missing Orthar was probably in there, wreaking havoc. The crab was then forced to isolate Orthar by making its eye-hole impenetrable.

Orthar probably knew about metal affinity and decided to keep attacking to force the crab to continue using its metal element. As long as the others could keep the crab distracted, it couldn't deal with Orthar. After all, this would reveal an opening for them to exploit. If Silva managed to bite it again, it could prove even worse than its current situation.

Like this, the fight continued for several more seconds. After some time, Morn was near death, but Silva continually risked his life to save Morn. The crab also grew more panicked and then did something that no one had expected.

The crab lifted one of its powerful shears and slammed down with all of its power. Yet, it didn't slam down on the others, but onto its own head!

BOOOOM!

Nearly half its head caved in as the eye-hole was completely destroyed and buried. Everyone took a deep breath of shock as they watched.

Orthar had still been inside that hole, and they hadn't seen anything leaving that hole. On top of that, Orthar wouldn't be able to dig fast enough to escape the collapse.

There was no way that Orthar could have survived that.

 

Chapter 416

Silence came over the area as everyone tried to process the fact that Orthar had died. His body was simply not powerful enough to survive such a shocking attack from the crab. Yet, Silva and Morn only had burning eyes as they looked at the crab. Then, they directly charged at it again. Such a wound was devastating to it, and it would surely weaken its Battle-Strength.

Orthar had given his life for this opportunity, and they wouldn't waste it!

Meanwhile, the crab started laughing loudly as it went into a defensive position. Its shears blocked all the attacks as it slowly retreated. It intended to gain some time to get some Energy back.

"Hahaha!" the crab laughed as it transmitted its laugh to everyone. "The annoying octopus is dead! I don't feel any attacks hitting my head anymore!" it transmitted to everyone.

Silva and Morn grew frustrated as they realized that it would become even more difficult to kill the crab. Now, it only needed to pay attention to them. They attacked with fervor, but as soon as the crab went into a defensive position, it was incomparably hard to hit it.

"AAAARRGGHHH!" the crab suddenly shouted in pain and panic.

"Do you feel it now, crab?" A transmission rang from inside the crab. To everyone's disbelief, that was Orthar's voice. But how?

"Impossible! You couldn't… have… sur…" the crab tried to say, but it seemed to grow more confused and abject as it continued. That was because Orthar had started attacking the crab's brain. Its mind stopped working, and after some more seconds, it fell over to the side.

The crab was dead.

Silva and Morn were still shocked. They had survived? Orthar had also survived? Were they dreaming?

Puchi!

A tiny hole appeared between some parts of the broken carapace. After that, a long and thin worm came out of the hole. After the worm left the hole, it transformed into Orthar. Yet, Orthar looked horrible. His whole body was deformed, and all his tentacles only hung loosely off of his body.

BOOOM!

Morn also collapsed as he just lay on the ground. He had been stressing his body immensely, and after the pressure had vanished, he collapsed to the ground. He was breathing heavily, but his life wasn't in danger.

Orthar also fell to the ground. He was nearly as heavily injured as Morn. Silva was the only one that could still move, and he quickly checked on Morn. After seeing that Morn wasn't in life-threatening danger, he went over to Orthar.

"What happened?" Silva asked in disbelief. "How did you manage to survive that attack?"

Orthar only laughed weakly. "Honestly, I don't know," he said. "I only saw him raise his shear and knew that my death was about to come. In order to reduce the impact, I used my disguise ability to increase the area of my body. Like this, I wouldn't receive the entire brunt of his attack."

Orthar laughed bitterly again. "Yet, that was only an empty dream. I knew that my death would arrive. Yet, as I saw my death come, my life flashed before my eyes. I thought about everything in my life and also thought about my disguise ability. It was then that I realized something."

"What did you realize?" Silva asked in interest.

"I have never used my disguise ability to its true potential. A disguise is more than just acting as something else, but becoming something else. As soon as I realized that, I used this new knowledge to

flatten my entire body. I moved all essential parts to the side, where the strike wouldn't be that powerful. And, who would have thought, I managed to survive, somehow," Orthar explained.

"When fighting more powerful opponents, your mind is under immense pressure," Gravis said as he appeared in front of them. "I have seen a cultivator that managed to achieve a breakthrough in his Will- Aura in the middle of a fight before. Something similar happened to you."

The three beasts looked with shock at Gravis and then sighed in relief. The fact that Gravis was here meant that the shark was dead. On top of that, Gravis looked completely uninjured. At least they didn't have to deal with another powerful opponent now.

"The shark is dead?" Silva asked.

Gravis nodded. "Yes. I've been watching your fight for a while now. You managed to go through a rebirth with this fight."

The three beasts sighed again.

"Could you tell me more about what happened to me, Gravis?" Orthar asked.

Gravis nodded again. "Back when I was in the Middle-Continent in the lower world, I was tempering my Will-Aura. I had a brief run-in with some Darkness Cultivators from the Darkness Guild. Yet, they weren't my opponents at all. I simply suppressed them with my Will-Aura and killed them."

"Yet, one peculiar disciple managed to achieve a breakthrough under my suppression. Of course, I still killed him," Gravis said as he had a heartfelt smile on his face. "You can't achieve a breakthrough in your Realm while inside a battle, but your will, experience, and Law comprehension can increase."

"A deadly battle pushes all of your being to its absolute limits. When that isn't enough, there might come an opportunity for you to realize a new truth." Then, Gravis shrugged. "Sadly, I never had had

that opportunity myself."

"What did I understand?" Orthar asked in confusion.

Gravis only smiled happily at Orthar. He was happy that Orthar had survived and also happy that Orthar managed to take a step that even Gravis himself hadn't been able to take yet. "You managed to comprehend a Law," Gravis said.

"A Law?" Orthar asked in confusion. "We haven't talked about that yet. What is that?"

Gravis laughed a bit. "Laws are what define how the world works. For example, you know that water always flows down, but you don't know enough about water to manipulate it in very complex ways. In order to do that, you need to comprehend the workings of the world. When you understood something, and when you can use this understanding to increase your power, you have comprehended a Law."

Orthar remained silent for a while as he thought about his new understanding regarding disguise. "I think I get it," Orthar said. "I think I know more about changing my body's shape and its makeup. Somehow, I feel like I can manipulate my body in more ways than before."

Gravis nodded. "This probably also allows you to change your shape faster. Like this, you could evade attacks by changing the shape of your body. Maybe you could also appear many times weaker or as more than one creature. A Law can increase your Battle-Strength significantly."

Orthar didn't answer anymore as he continued thinking about his new comprehension. Gravis didn't bother Orthar anymore and turned to Silva. "This is the difference between fighting something more powerful than you and fighting many equally powerful opponents."

"By fighting many opponents, you see progress and know that the battle will become easier the more you manage to weaken your opponents. By fighting against a more powerful opponent, you feel life- threatening danger until the very end. This can push you much harder," Gravis explained.

Silva remained silent for a while as he also thought about the fight.

"By fighting against many smaller opponents," Gravis continued explaining, "you learn how to use your resources more efficiently and how to win against many opponents. Yet, that experience only partially carries over when you fight a more powerful opponent."

"A more powerful opponent is faster than you, which is a significant advantage. If you're not used to dodging attacks that are way above your class, you will go through hell. Yet, you can only learn how to dodge such attacks by going through this hell. Going through this hell is the first and most important step to being able to jump a level."

"Jump a level, huh?" Silva mused as he looked to the horizon in thought.

The concept of jumping an entire level felt foreign and like a dream to Silva. One level increased the body's power by four times. Something like this seemed impossible to overcome.

Gravis only laughed a bit. "You're already halfway there. The three of you could count as half a level two Lord. As long as you keep at it and gain more experience, you can overcome this hurdle."

Then, Gravis grinned. "If I can jump two levels, you can, at least, manage to jump one, right?" Gravis said as he playfully hit Silva on the side.

Silva's body swayed a bit from the punch, but his eyes widened when he heard Gravis. "Yes," he slowly said. "You can jump two levels, so why can't we manage to jump one? If jumping two levels isn't impossible, then jumping only one level is definitely possible."

"That's right!" Gravis shouted. "Keep at it and keep gaining new experiences. As soon as we get to the level three Tribes, you guys can do the same thing again. Then, you can try it with only two of you, and before you know it, you feel confident enough to try it alone."

"He's right," Morn said as he sat up. "In the beginning, I thought that I would die. That thinking had also not changed when we had already started fighting. Yet, the more the fight progressed, the easier it felt for me to evade the crab's attacks. Near the end, I felt like I could see the crab's entire power and what it was capable of."

Silva nodded as his eyes burned with battle-intent. "Yes. I felt the same thing," he said severely. "At the beginning, the crab looked like an impossibly tall mountain that I couldn't climb. Yet, as the fight continued, I was finally able to see the peak. I saw hope and victory on the horizon. I didn't know if I would be able to reach it, but, at least, I knew that there was a chance."

"Same thing for me," Orthar said from the side.

Gravis nodded with a smile. "I knew that you three had a chance. If you didn't, I would have forced Shira or Liza to fight with you. As long as I threaten them, they wouldn't dare to disobey me," Gravis said with a smirk.

Orthar and Morn felt Gravis' trust, but Silva narrowed his eyes.

"Where is that cowardly snake?" he asked with rage.

 

Chapter 417

Gravis only smirked at Silva's question. "Do I really need to answer that?" he asked. "Think of what she would do in this situation. You should be able to guess what and where she would be right now."

Silva went back into thinking and then snorted. "She is probably 90% sure that we all have died. So, to not get killed by the two powerful level three Lords, she should have left the Tribe."

Gravis nodded. "But that's not all, is it?" he asked.

Silva snorted again. "Of course, she would also plan for the fact that we actually survived. In that case, she would need to go through a hell of tempering to not fall behind. So, she probably went to the territories of the level two Lords and wouldn't return until she is confident enough in her power."

Gravis nodded. "Exactly. I'm pretty sure Shira is currently tempering herself against some other powerful Tribes."

Silva only sneered. "It doesn't matter. I felt the difference between fighting many equal opponents and fighting a more powerful one. I am pretty confident that I can kill her without dying when she returns." Then, Silva's eyes became icy. "As soon as she returns, I will kill her."

Gravis only smiled and nodded. "Sure, you can. Nobody will stop you if you decide to do that, but don't you think that killing her now would be a waste?"

Silva looked with skepticism at Gravis. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Think about it," Gravis said. "Without her constant threat, would you or your Land Camp be as powerful as you or they are now? Didn't the constant pressure push you further than you would have ever thought?"

Silva became a bit frustrated but continued thinking.

Seeing that Silva remained quiet, Gravis continued. "Less than a month ago, you were a Spirit Beast. Now, you have killed a level three Lord with your companions. Without Shira, you wouldn't be a level two Lord now, and you certainly wouldn't be such a powerful one."

Silva sneered again. "What? Are you saying that I should be thankful to her?" he asked with disdain.

Gravis only shook his head with a smile. "Of course not. She is your enemy, and killing one's enemies is as normal as water flowing down. Yet, killing her now would be a waste. She still has her uses."

Silva narrowed his eyes. "You say I should keep her alive?"

"For now, yes. If I were in your position, I would give her the chance to become a threat to me again. Only with her pressure would I be able to grow to my true potential. Without pressure, my growth will become way slower. So, as long as she still has the chance to become a threat, I wouldn't kill her."

Then, Gravis smirked. "But, of course, as soon as I am way more powerful than her, I would kill her. After all, she is my enemy in this scenario."

Silva furrowed his brows. "So, you say I should use her to become more powerful, and only when she is no threat anymore should I kill her?" he asked.

Gravis nodded. "Yep."

"But what if she becomes more powerful than me and kills me?" he asked.

Gravis laughed when he heard that. "That's the point. If there weren't a risk of her killing you, what tempering and pressure would she be able to give you? When you're tempering yourself, you're always playing with fire. Burning yourself is one of the risks that you have to accept."

Then, Gravis shrugged. "But, as I said, you can also just directly kill her when she returns. In the end, it's your decision. I only told you what I would do in your case. You are still you."

Silva sighed. "Thank you for your guidance, Leader, but I think I will kill her as soon as she returns. She has killed too many of my companions, and I don't want her to kill more of them."

Gravis nodded. "Sure, then go ahead. It's your decision."

Silva only nodded with determination.

And like this, the Tribe went back to its old ways. The Lords went back to temper themselves. Yet, as the weeks passed, the urgency that they had had before vanished. Shira was no longer here, which reduced the pressure of the River Tribe immensely.

Because of that, the Lords didn't temper themselves nearly every day anymore but actually took several breaks. After all, without Shira, they were not under as much pressure to become more powerful.

When Silva saw this, he grew frustrated. Gravis had been right about Shira's uses, and he didn't like to acknowledge that one bit. By now, he started doubting himself. Should he really kill her directly for what she had done? Hearing and seeing were two different concepts.

Hearing about Shira's uses and pressure was different than seeing the effects of her absence. It actually took nearly two entire weeks until another level two Lord appeared, and then it took another two weeks until the next one appeared.

The Tribe was rapidly expanding into the continent, and their headquarters had shifted many times by now. There was no reason anymore for Gravis to wait at the coast. After all, he doubted that the Stone Tribe would send more enemies after their defeat last time.

Yet, there still appeared two level three Lords during this time. The reason for that was that the River Tribe had infringed on territories of Tribes that paid allegiance to these powerful Tribes. Therefore, the powerful Tribes had sent level three Lords to stop them.

Gravis killed the first level three Lord. The fight had been a bit difficult, but not as difficult as his fight against the shark. The main reason for that was that Gravis' lightning had more than doubled. This strengthened his lightning-based attacks immensely.

Gravis had only received a slight bit of tempering, which made him a bit sad. Yet, there was nothing he could do about it. It was not possible for him to artificially make himself weaker. After all, he could always return to his previous peak whenever he wanted. This would not put more pressure on him.

Because of this, Gravis decided to wait for a time when two level three Lords attacked at the same time. When that happened, he would be able to temper himself again. He knew his power, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to kill a level four Lord yet.

The second level three Lord had been killed by Silva, Morn, and Orthar. The fight had been incredibly difficult, and, sadly, it also proved fatal for one of them.

Morn had died.

He had taken most of the attacks, and, in the end, he succumbed to them. Yet, Silva and Orthar managed to kill the level three Lord. Silva also managed to comprehend a Law while fighting. He had comprehended a Law related to his venom.

He had been close to death when that happened, and if he weren't able to do something, he would have died. Under this immense pressure, he managed to control his venom like water and shoot it out in a beam. The opponent hadn't been ready for that at all.

Because of that, the venom beam directly entered their body and corroded it. Since Silva's venom was one entire level lower than his opponent, the enemy didn't die immediately. Yet, an immense amount of Life Energy had been used up to deal with the venom. This made the opponent succumb to their other, smaller injuries over time.

Orthar, Silva, and Gravis grieved for Morn. He had had the most experience in regards to Tribes, and he had always been a stalwart companion. Yet, not everyone had the power, talent, and luck to reach the peak. The fact that they cared for him didn't change this truth, sadly.

No more level three Lords attacked them in the following month, but the Tribe still expanded. Two entire months after Shira's departure, they finally managed to reach the territory of the level three Tribes.

By now, the distance to the coast was longer than 50.000 kilometers. This proved that this world was truly immense.

Several more level two Lords appeared inside the River Tribe in these two months, much faster than before. The reason for that was Morn's death. The death of one of the strongest beasts inside the Tribe had awakened the Tribe from its laziness. They realized that, even though Shira wasn't here anymore, they were still not safe and required more power.

Yet, another two weeks later, something momentous happened.

Shira had returned.

Chapter 418

When Shira returned, Silva grew even more frustrated. He had thought a long time about her effects on the Tribe and had concluded that he would kill her, even if it slowed the growth of the Tribe. He just couldn't forgive her for what she had done.

Yet, this plan was thrown out of the window as soon as he saw her.

Shira had become a level three Lord.

Silva and Orthar had decided to only temper themselves against level three Lords. Sadly, that decision had impacted the growth of their Realm. After all, there hadn't been many level three Lords that had attacked their territory.

On top of that, they had only reached the area with the level three Tribes recently. They had intended to go out and temper themselves soon, but Shira had returned before they could start. Shira's new power infuriated Silva to no end.

As soon as Shira returned, she went to visit Gravis in their new headquarters. The new Spire was many times bigger and harder than the previous one. A Spire was a symbol of status, and the bigger and harder it was, the more powerful the Earth Movers inside the Tribe needed to be.

A gigantic and powerful Spire like this required an Earth Mover that was, at least, a level three Lord. Yet, the most powerful Earth Mover inside the Tribe was Orthar, who was a level two Lord, wasn't it?

That was not entirely true.

Sometimes there would be fights when both enemies died. At that point, there would be two corpses that no one had killed. Gravis didn't want his Tribe to get free food, which was why he forbade the beasts to eat corpses that they hadn't killed.

Yet, would Gravis just waste these corpses? Of course not! So, he fed the corpses to his fungus. He never intended for the Common Fungus to fight, which was also the reason why he had it eat all these corpses. Its Battle-Strength was irrelevant. Gravis was using the fungus more for manual labor.

Thus, the fungus had become a level three Lord, and with its new power, it managed to create this impressive, new Spire. It was fully made out of some kind of powerful ore and stretched far into the sky. The Spire was over 25-kilometers-tall.

Gravis also decided to live on top of the Spire now, instead of in its middle. The reason for that was that terrain wasn't important anymore, starting at the Unity Realm. There was no reason for the Tribe to create an Abyss at this place. After all, only Lords lived at this new headquarter.

The immense amount of Spirit Beasts that the Tribe had gathered over the months all lived further outside. The reason for that was that the current headquarters resided deep in the territories of the level two Tribes. Spirit Beasts wouldn't even be able to temper themselves here and might accidentally die when Lords fought.

On the coast of the continent, the Spirit Beasts could temper themselves against each other and some newly created Tribes. When they became Lords, they would travel to the new headquarters if they were interested in becoming more powerful.

Yet, one shouldn't forget that level two Tribes also generally had several level one Lords. What about them?

Gravis had also found a solution for them. These new level one Lords couldn't compare to the level one Lords of the River Tribe. Because of that, he couldn't keep them at the headquarters. If he did that, all the level one Lords that had risen from the River Tribe would just harvest them to raise their level. Yet, such a fight wouldn't benefit their Battle-Strength.

Because of that, Gravis created a camp between the coast with the Spirit Beasts and the headquarters. There, the level one Lords that came from other Tribes would go through the same thing as the Spirit Beasts. The only difference was that they would fight other level one Lords instead of Spirit Beasts. With this, the survivors would be able to compare to the other Lords inside the Tribe.

Shira had heard about all this and narrowed her eyes. The Tribe had become even more powerful than she had imagined. She had thought that it would slow down as soon as more level two Lords rose, but that hadn't been the case at all.

When she returned, she saw over 20 level two Lords, which had surprised her to no end. On top of that, she knew that there were more of them. After all, some of them were probably tempering themselves outside of the Tribe right now.

So, Shira and Gravis met on top of the Spire. Shira first asked if she was still part of the Tribe and Gravis nodded. It had been her choice to fight, and he wouldn't throw her out just because of that. Yet, he also warned her that Silva had become incredibly powerful.

When Shira heard Gravis describe Silva's power, her eyes showed a fiery motivation. Right now, Silva was not a level three Lord, but that could change very quickly. She also trusted Gravis' knowledge about power. When Gravis said that Shira would die the day that Silva became a level three Lord, she believed him.

Gravis had also told her that she needed to temper herself more if she wanted to stay alive. If she didn't, she only had two options: die or flee.

Shira fell into thought when she heard that and then sighed. After that, she looked at Gravis. "Or, I kill him right now," she said.

Gravis only smiled, but before he could say anything.

BOOOOOOOM!

The whole top of the Spire exploded as Shira shot at Gravis. Gravis wouldn't allow her to kill Silva, and she knew that. So, in order to survive, Shira had to kill Gravis first! This was the decision she had made as soon as she decided to return.

BZZZZZ!

Gravis immediately transformed into lightning and shot into the sky. Shira became enraged when she saw that. She had assumed that, with her speed, she would be able to kill Gravis with a sneak-attack. Yet, Gravis had reacted like he had already expected such an attack.

The whole Tribe went into a frenzy as the top of the Spire exploded. Silva and Orthar appeared beside the Spire and looked at Shira. Orthar wasn't surprised at all, but Silva nearly lost his mind in rage. "How dare you!?" Silva shouted.

Shira only smirked. "Isn't that why our Leader has invited me into the Tribe? He wanted me to become powerful enough to pose a threat to him. I am only doing what he wanted me to do in the first place," she said with a bloodthirsty smirk.

"Yet, our dear Leader hasn't seen what I have gone through in these last two months. I went through hell, and I have become more powerful than he would have expected. He has played with fire for long enough, and it's high time for him to get burned."

Silva grew enraged, but there was nothing he could do. He knew Shira's combat power very well, and he knew that she couldn't be compared to the other level three Lords that he and Orthar had killed. If those two fought her, they would definitely die.

"Hahaha!" Gravis laughed from the sky. "Man, when it comes to you, I really make one mistake after the other," Gravis said in-between laughs.

Shira only continued smirking. "Yes, you do. You wouldn't have expected me to grow this powerful in such a short amount of time, but that is your own fault. I am not like the other level three Lords you have killed. This time, you have bitten off more than you can chew."

Gravis only continued laughing. "Oh, Shira, Shira," he said with a shake of his head. "This is not what I meant. I am not talking about your power, but about your personality."

Shira only sneered. "What do you mean?" she asked in a mocking tone.

Gravis shook his head again with a smile. "I have expected you to be a beast that can estimate the power of your enemy without much problem. Yet, you have disappointed me. I would have thought that you were smart enough to realize that you're not my opponent right now."

Shira only scoffed at Gravis. "Your tricks and battle-experiences won't help you this time. You are two whole levels below me, and I am experienced enough to defend myself against everything you can use. As long as I don't commit a mistake while defending myself, you won't be able to even hit me with your slow speed."

Shira laughed a bit. "After all, it was you who taught me that power is everything. In front of supreme power, schemes and experiences won't save you."

Gravis only smirked. "Right, that's what I said, and that holds true," he said, but then, Gravis' smirk disappeared. "And that is also the reason why you have no chance against me anymore."

Shira narrowed her eyes at Gravis and shot at him.

Meanwhile, Gravis continued transmitting his thoughts. A voice transmission was instant, after all.

"Three months ago, my lightning was only powerful to injure a level three Lord."

"Two months ago, my lightning became powerful enough to kill a level three Lord."

"One month ago, my lightning became powerful enough that not a single level three Lord in this world can withstand a single attack from it."

Then, Gravis smirked again. Shira was still charging at him with quite some speed.

BZZZZ!

Gravis transformed into lightning and shot at Shira with incredible speed. Gravis' lightning was now over three times as powerful as when he had reached Unity. This meant that his speed, while being lightning, had also become a lot faster.

Gravis' lightning caught Shira off guard, but her battle-experience was incredible. Instead of just looking at him, she immediately used one of her two heads to bite him.

"I'm disappointed in you," Gravis said as he summoned a saber and slashed forward.

A Lightning Crescent with 100% of Gravis' power shot at her, and there was no way for her to evade from such a distance.

He had intended to use this fully-loaded Lightning Crescent on one of his two enemies when they appeared. Like this, he would be forced to only fight with his own power. That would create a challenge again. Sadly, that plan had fallen out of the window.

She felt the power of the approaching lightning and knew that she couldn't possibly survive that.

"What a disappointing death," Gravis transmitted one last time.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

An explosion nearly ten-kilometers-wide appeared in the sky. All watching beasts had their eyes burned and lost their sight. They needed to regrow new eyes to see again. The shockwaves also destroyed the

whole Spire and threw chunks of them far into the distance.

With their senses, the Lords were able to evade the chunks. If they hadn't, they would have helplessly died under their incredible hardness and weight.

After a second, the explosion vanished.

Only Gravis remained hovering in the sky, a gigantic saber in his hand. At the same time, the lightning from the explosion gathered together and entered his body.

Then, Gravis only smirked as he put his saber on his shoulders.

"And that's that," he commented.

Shira had died before she could even put up a fight.

 

Chapter 419

The Tribe remained silent for several seconds. Had the Sea Commander died just like that?

"YEEEAAAHH!" and then, the whole Tribe cheered, including the Sea Camp. Everyone hated Shira. She was dangerous to the Land Camp and just as dangerous to the Sea Camp.

If it had been two months ago, the Sea Camp would have felt devastated. After all, back then, they had believed that the Land Camp wanted to eradicate the Sea Camp. Yet, in these two months, with Shira's absence, they had come more into contact with the Land Beasts.

Over these two months, the Sea Camp realized that they weren't the Land Camp's enemy. The real enemy of the Land Camp was Shira. With Shira's death, the Land Camp and Sea Camp would no longer be enemies.

During this time, the Sea Camp and Land Camp got to know each other better. By now, they had acknowledged the other side's power, and with power came respect. With Shira's death, the enmity between the Camps would also die.

While all of this was going on, Gravis started growing. He had absorbed Shira's full power, and, finally, he had enough to reach the Early Unity Realm. His body shook, and in just one minute, he grew to be around six meters tall.

When Gravis' breakthrough was over, he only sighed. 'The internal pressure of the Tribe has lessened with Shira's death. Also, I need to forge new weapons for my new size. Well, I have enough ore for that, at least,' Gravis thought.

Gravis had a humongous amount and variety of ores inside his Spirit Space. After all, he and the fungus had regularly searched for ores. By now, he had also developed a feeling regarding the different kinds of ores. He only needed to smelt a new ore twice to immediately know how it worked.

"So, Shira's dead," Silva commented from the side.

Gravis nodded. "I wanted to keep her alive for you, but she decided to attack me. Sorry about that," Gravis said.

"Don't mention it," Silva said with a sigh. "It just feels kind of… empty to me. She had been my goal, and suddenly, my goal is just gone."

Gravis only lightly hit Silva's side. "She was just a temporary goal anyway. Isn't becoming stronger and protecting your companions the purest goal? Just strive for that instead," Gravis said with a smirk.

Silva sighed again. "I guess I could do that, but it feels different."

"That's because there is not as much pressure anymore. You've grown used to the benefits that constant pressure gives you. Now, the survival of the Land Camp is secure, even without you. Wasn't Shira's threat the only reason why you even decided to stay inside the River Tribe?" Gravis asked.

Silva thought back to the day when he had decided to join the River Tribe. Gravis was right. Silva had only joined the River Tribe because he couldn't watch as all his companions would die to her. He had been completely against the philosophy of the River Tribe back then.

"So, you can leave if you want," Gravis said with a smirk.

Yet, Silva only sighed. "Don't play games with me," he silently said. "You know exactly that I can't return to my previous self after seeing my incredible growth in the last couple of months."

Gravis only laughed loudly. "I know, I know," he said. "So, now you have to do the same thing I've been doing for the past couple of months."

Silva looked with interest at Gravis. "Which is?" he asked.

"Try to create pressure for yourself. After all, Shira had been right. This was exactly what I wanted her to do. With a greedy and sneaky snake constantly at your back, you can't relax. Thanks to that, the River Tribe managed to grow with insane speeds."

Silva listened to Gravis and sighed. "Did you know that something like this would happen from the very beginning?" he asked.

Gravis scratched his chin in thought. "Not entirely," he said. "I was about 80% sure that she would betray me when she thought she had enough power to kill me, but there was also the chance that she would genuinely change." Then, Gravis shrugged. "Sadly, she wasn't able to correctly estimate my power."

Silva sighed again. "Honestly, I'm not sure what I should do right now. I don't even know how I can put myself under more pressure," he said.

Gravis only smirked and laughed a little. "Oh, you don't need to worry about that. I have that aspect covered," he said.

Silva looked with surprise at Gravis again. "How?"

"Simple," Gravis said with a smirk. "Our Tribe has been constantly attacking and killing other Tribes. We have probably already decimated several Tribes associated with powerful Tribes or Kingdoms. In the coming weeks, more and more powerful Lords will arrive."

Then, Gravis narrowed his eyes while maintaining his smirk. "So, in order to protect the River Tribe, you need to fight those intruders. You haven't realized it yet, but Shira's internal pressure has been converted into external pressure. Now, you don't need to fear her anymore, but our actual enemies."

Gravis laughed a bit more. "After all, we're arriving at the territories of the level three Lords."

Silva took a deep breath. Like this, all the pressure had returned.

"Additionally," Gravis said, "I won't get involved when level three Lords attack. They don't pose any threat to me anymore. So, if two level three Lords attack, you have to deal with them. If you can't, I will just watch how the entire Tribe gets annihilated."

Silva was shocked when he heard that. "You would do that? You would just watch as the entire River Tribe was killed?" This was utterly new to Silva. He had expected that Gravis would step in to protect the Tribe. Wasn't this one of the Leader's jobs?

Gravis nodded. "Yes. Orthar should have told you our goal in creating this Tribe. The whole Tribe is there to create pressure for us. I have never put any kind of rule on any beast that forbade them from leaving. If you want, you can tell it to the whole Tribe. Whoever wants to leave can leave."

Silva released a shaky breath. Then, his body shook in frustration. "You know exactly that most beasts won't leave with me after seeing their own power increase like that. Aren't you doing the same thing that Shira has done?" he asked in anger.

Gravis shook his head. "No. I don't target the Tribe specifically. I just let everything take its course. Either the Tribe is powerful enough to rule the world, or it will die trying. I don't know if the Tribe has that capability unless I let it take its course. Either you follow me on this path, or you abandon it and take a new one. It's your decision."

Then, Gravis smiled. "Of course, I will consider you a friend either way," he said.

Silva was still angry, but some of his anger had vanished as he listened to Gravis' words. Gravis gave the beasts every freedom. The members of the River Tribe were powerful enough to create their own Tribe. On top of that, they were way above average in Battle-Strength.

If the beasts wanted to create their own Tribes, no one would stop them. They could become the hegemons of their own Tribe and rise to power. Yet, nearly no beast inside the River Tribe wanted that.

Silva sighed again. "Why do you give the beasts of the Tribe so much freedom? Are you not afraid that they will just leave after hearing your stance?"

"Because freedom is the most important thing to me, and if I don't grant others that freedom, I don't deserve it myself. Suppressing others while being totally free is hypocritical in my opinion," Gravis answered.

Silva listened to Gravis and sighed again. Yet, this time, he didn't sigh out of helplessness but because he had made a decision. "Then I will use that freedom to convince as many beasts to leave the River Tribe. At the rate we're going, we will sooner or later anger an opponent that we can't fight against."

"I don't want my companions to walk to their deaths. If they decide to stay, I will let them stay. After all, they are their own beasts with their own decisions. Yet, I want them to realize the whole picture and what could happen in the future. I'm sorry," Silva said.

Gravis only smiled. "Don't be. If I were angry about the beasts using their freedom, then it couldn't be considered true freedom. Go ahead and do whatever you want. If you believe your path is better, then follow it to the end. Who knows, maybe your path truly is better?" Gravis said.

Silva only felt worse when he heard Gravis' words. He already felt guilty that he was basically going against Gravis with this decision, and he would have preferred an angry Gravis. Yet, Gravis' kind words only made him feel even more guilt.

"I'm sorry," Silva said. Then, he left the Spire.

"You're fine with this?" Orthar asked as he came closer to Gravis.

Gravis nodded. "It's okay. I knew that true freedom wouldn't keep beasts and people united. After all, there are infinite paths in these worlds," Gravis said with a heartfelt smile as he looked at the River Tribe. "They can all follow their own paths. The more paths you know, the surer you can be about your own."

"Silva had only known one path when he joined us. That is not freedom. Yet, by staying with us, he has seen my path, Shira's path, Liza's path, and your path. Back then, he didn't have a choice, but now, he does. It's a good thing that he decided to follow his own path now, and I'm genuinely happy for him."

Orthar remained silent a bit. "I don't know. If I were you, I would have killed Silva when he said that. After all, by acting against us, he stopped being a friend and became a hindrance. But you're our leader, and I won't get involved."

Gravis only laughed a bit. "That's your path, not mine. You can follow your path just like Silva can follow his."

Orthar started looking into the direction where Silva went. "So, if I wanted to, I could kill Silva?"

Gravis scratched his chin. "If you want, sure, but don't forget that he is no longer part of the River Tribe. This means that the rules no longer count for him. If you try to stop him, all his followers might unite against you. I want to give you freedom, but I don't want you to commit suicide, you know."

Orthar listened to Gravis, but then, his eyes began to shine. "Then that goes both ways, right?"

"It's your decision," Gravis said. "If you die, I won't save you. You can let him leave peacefully if you want, or you could attack him. Honestly, I see both of you as my friends, and I wouldn't want to see you guys fighting. Yet, if that's your decision, I won't stop you."

Orthar remained silent for a bit more. Then, he released a breath as he made his decision. "Then, I have to disappoint you," Orthar said as he shot away.

Gravis only looked at the leaving Orthar and sighed.

"Morn and Shira have died. By allowing them total freedom, Orthar and Silva are about to enter a life and death fight. At least one of them will die, maybe both."

Then, Gravis released a shaky sigh. "They are both my friends, and I don't want either of them to leave me. Yet, what can I do? I want to give them total freedom, but this freedom also makes them kill each other. I either force my principles on them or watch as they kill each other," Gravis muttered to himself.

Then, Gravis looked in melancholy at the sky. "Father, I wonder, is this how you feel with all your children? You grant them freedom, but they grow apart from each other and might even start killing each other. Is this also what you feel?"

Of course, no one answered Gravis.

After looking for a couple more minutes into the sky, Gravis sighed again. "I think I can understand why you grew so emotionally distant. It's not easy to watch your companions kill each other."

Then, Gravis slowly left the Spire to watch what was going on.

The Tribe was about to fight itself.

 

Chapter 420

"You're my friend, Orthar! Don't force me into this situation!" Silva shouted in rage and helplessness. Several level two Lords stood behind him. Starting at the Unity Realm, no beast could be counted as stupid anymore. As soon as Silva explained everything to them, they realized the actual danger they were in. If two level three Lords attacked, they would all get annihilated.

Yet, just as many beasts stood behind Orthar. They had seen their insane growth and noticed how the pressure had helped them. Of course, this also meant that they realized how dangerous it would be for them if so many Lords left them. They wanted to stay, but if so many Lords left, the chances of them dying would increase significantly.

"You have stopped being a friend to me after your words, Silva," Orthar said coldly. "I want to become powerful! That's my goal in life! Yet, by convincing so many Lords to leave with you, you have become a hindrance to me! You can leave by yourself if you want, but I won't allow so many Lords to leave with you!"

Meanwhile, the beasts were all in distress. The two most powerful beasts beside the Leader were about to kill each other. They didn't want to go against each other, but both sides had their own goals.

Ironically, the goals of both sides were identical. Both sides just didn't want to die. Yet, the same goal manifested in different ideologies and mindsets. Because of that, even though both sides just didn't want to die, they were about to kill each other.

"Give up, Orthar!" Silva shouted. "Even if I were to die to you, my followers will just leave! They know the truth now and will leave, even without me! Killing me won't change anything!"

Many of the onlookers, who hadn't decided on a side, felt themselves sway to Silva's camp. Yes, what could the Oracle even do? The beasts would leave either way. They might as well just join Silva in leaving.

"So?" Orthar answered. "By killing you and your followers, our Tribe will get some supreme tempering. On top of that, your deaths will give rise to several level three Lords! At that point, we won't have to fear the invasion of level three Lords anymore!"

Now, the onlookers were swayed towards Orthar's camp. If they all killed Silva's side, they would become even more powerful. If a level four Lord invaded, the Leader would get involved. They only needed to be powerful enough to resist level three Lords. They knew that their Lords were way more powerful than average Lords. One level three Lord in their Tribe might be able to take on two invading level three Lords.

Silva's body shook in rage and frustration. "That is only true if you still have enough level two Lords after this fight! Additionally, if so many level two Lords become level three Lords, you would have a shortage of level two Lords. What if lots of level two Lords invade then? Would the level three Lords care about those?"

"Your Leader won't protect you from death! Are you willing to stay in such a dangerous Tribe!?" Silva shouted at the beasts behind Orthar.

"This is nothing new, Silva," Orthar shouted back. "The Leader has never protected our Tribe from beasts that pose no danger to him. Yet, look at where we are now! The way of the Leader has proven that this is the fastest way to grow more powerful! If it were up to you, you would have directly left back then."

"And then what?" Orthar continued. "Then, we might not even have a single level two Lord now! Every beast behind you will just forever remain at their current power. Maybe their Realm increases, but then they will only count as average level three Lords without any proper danger. Are you willing to remain at your current strength forever!?"

"Don't twist the facts, Oracle!" Silva shouted with fury. "My decision today is different from my decision back then! I will still allow everyone to temper themselves to their heart's content! The only difference is that I won't make enemies with Tribes that can eradicate all of us with a wave of their claws!"

"And like that, your Tribe will feel nearly no pressure and become average like any other Tribe, Commander!" Orthar shouted back. "Your path might work if all other Tribes in this world are passive, but that isn't the reality of this world! At some point, a stronger enemy will get interested in your territories and will attack you. What then? How can you protect the Tribe like that?" Orthar answered.

"This has always been an eventuality, Oracle!" Silva shouted back. "But by deliberately angering such powerful Tribes, you transform this eventuality into certainty! Your Tribe is doomed to die, while my Tribe only has a possibility of death! What you're doing is not tempering but suicide!"

"Is not every fight a gamble with death?" Orthar answered. "The best fights are the ones where we don't see a chance of victory but still win. We have fought together against two level three Lords. Right now, we are close to being able to jump an entire level. Yet, have these fights appeared winnable in the beginning? Of course not!"

"Yes, you're right on that point, but to commit to such a fight should be a choice for the individual!" Silva shouted back. "Not every beast wants to go through such insane fights as you and I! Yet, by angering such powerful Tribes, you don't give the individual a choice! They will be forced into fights that are beyond their current level!"

Despair, helplessness, and uncertainty tore the beasts apart. Both sides sounded incredibly convincing, and the beasts that had chosen their side had also begun to sway. Now, they were no longer so sure about the side they had chosen.

Slowly, one beast after the other left Silva and Orthar. The beasts weren't able to decide which side to join, which made them join the onlookers. This decision was just too hard to make.

Orthar and Silva noticed that their sides were growing smaller, but they both reacted in different ways. Silva grew more frustrated. He had expected that his followers were ready to join him. Yet, the beasts that he had seen as companions were leaving him.

Meanwhile, Orthar took the development in stride. The beasts that stood neutrally at the sidelines would follow the victor. Orthar only needed to kill Silva. Then, no beast would leave the Tribe!

As the beasts behind Orthar and Silva saw their companions leaving, they felt more pressure and also left. In a minute, Orthar and Silva stood alone.

Silva felt incredibly betrayed and infuriated, while Orthar felt smug about his victory. Silva and Orthar were in different positions. Silva was the active one, while Orthar was the passive one. By remaining undecided, the beasts had shown that they wouldn't leave together with Silva.

"No one is willing to follow you, viper," Orthar said. "I have said that you can leave by yourself. So, I won't stand in your way any longer." Then, Orthar moved to the side. "Leave," Orthar said.

Silva was incredibly infuriated, but after some time, he seemed to calm down. Then, a sneaky sparkle appeared inside his eyes. "Sure, I will leave, octopus," he said with a calm voice.

Then, he turned to the onlookers with a smile. "If you want to leave the River Tribe, just travel to the east from here. I will welcome you," he said.

Then, Silva looked at Orthar again. "By not killing anyone today, you have weakened the Tribe. No level three Lords will appear while your most powerful level two Lord will leave. You think you might have won, but that's not the case."

Then, Silva narrowed his eyes. "Now, it doesn't even need two level three lords to endanger the Tribe. With only you, one level three Lord is plenty enough."

Then, Silva laughed as he passed Orthar. "I wonder when the next level three Lord will invade. Because without the Leader intervening, that day will be the last day of the River Tribe."

Orthar realized Silva's scheme and grew angry for a second. Yet, he quickly calmed down.

"That won't be an issue," Orthar said. "I will become a level three Lord today, and I will protect us from other level three Lords. Your scheme has fallen flat, viper," Orthar said with a laugh.

All of Silva's rage returned. Nearly all beasts would have left after him if the power dynamic stayed like this. Yet, Orthar had sacrificed a tempering opportunity to save the Tribe. Like this, no one would leave but him!

"So, you are prepared to fight me to the bitter end," Silva said as he looked at Orthar. "Without killing you, I won't be able to save my comrades, is that it?" he asked icily.

Orthar laughed a bit. "That's true. Without killing me, you won't be able to convince anyone to leave. The beasts like it here. You should finally accept that fact!"

"Fine," Silva said with a vicious tone. "Then, let's have a duel to determine the winner."

Orthar laughed some more. "You are not part of the River Tribe anymore. You don't get to decide who fights whom. This is not a duel, but a war. It's my side against your side."

"This won't make a difference since only we two will fight," Silva said. "Let's go to the arena."

"The arenas are only for members of the Tribe. We don't need one," Orthar said, and then, he charged at Silva.

Silva only sneered and also attacked Orthar.

Gravis was watching this from a distance and felt like his heart was being torn apart. His two closest friends in this world were about to kill each other.

Yet, Gravis had decided on his path.

If his path required his companions to kill each other, then so be it!